Immediate Family

About Thomas Brattle

Thomas Brattle (1657–1713) was a well-educated and prosperous Boston merchant who served as treasurer of Harvard College, and was a member of the intellectually elite Royal Society.

Thomas Brattle was born 5 September 1657. He attended and graduated from Harvard College in 1676, later becoming treasurer of the college. He became a member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts in 1672. He was the principal founder of the Brattle Street Church in Boston, with Dr. Coleman as the first minister.

In early October 1692 he wrote a letter to an English clergyman which was critical of the Salem witch trials. The letter was circulated widely in Boston at the time, and it continues to be studied for its reasoned attack on the witchcraft trials in Salem. Brattle presents a compelling argument against the legal premises and procedures involved in the afflictions, accusations, and executions, with a particular focus on the invalidity of spectral evidence in proceedings. He concludes by saying "I am afraid that ages will not wear off that reproach and those stains which these things will leave behind them upon out land."

Among those entitled to grateful remembrance for services and bounties to Harvard College, the name of Thomas Brattle is conspicuous. He was a merchant of Boston, distinguished for opulence, activity, and talent, and for the zeal and readiness with which he devoted his time, wealth, and intellectual power to objects of private benevolence and public usefulness.

He was born in 1657, was graduated at Harvard College in 1676, and died in 1713, at the age of fifty-six. He was chosen Treasurer of the College in 1693, and held that office twenty years, until his death. In the July preceding that event, he caused the settlement he had made with his predecessor, in 1693, and his own account of receipts and expen- ditures during the intervening period, to be entered on the records of the Corporation ; carefully specify- ing the particulars of the real and personal estate of the College, with the incomes of both ; thus giving the most authentic and satisfactory development of its property and pecuniary relations at that early period. Two years elapsed after his death before a successor was appointed. During the interval, his brother and executor, the Rev. William Brattle, at the solicitation of the Corporation, took upon himself the superintendence of the finances of the College. By the accounts of these treasurers, it appears that Thomas Brattle received, in 1693, from John Richards, his

HISTORY OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY 411 CHAPTER XIX

predecessor, upwards of one thousand five hundred and fifty pounds, lawful money, personal estate of the College, and a real estate yielding one hundred pounds annual income ; and that William Brattle, his executor, delivered over to John White, his successor, in 1715, nearly three thousand eight hundred pounds, personal estate, and real estate, yielding two hundred and eighty pounds. Such was the accumulation of the property of the College, while its finances were under the management of these brothers.

Thomas Brattle (1657–1713) was a well-educated and prosperous Boston merchant who served as treasurer of Harvard College, and was a member of the intellectually elite Royal Society.

Thomas Brattle was born 5 September 1657. He attended and graduated from Harvard College in 1676, later becoming treasurer of the college. He became a member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts in 1672. He was the principal founder of the Brattle Street Church in Boston, with Dr. Coleman as the first minister.[1]

In early October 1692 he wrote a letter to an English clergyman which was critical of the Salem witch trials. The letter was circulated widely in Boston at the time, and it continues to be studied for its reasoned attack on the witchcraft trials in Salem. Brattle presents a compelling argument against the legal premises and procedures involved in the afflictions, accusations, and executions, with a particular focus on the invalidity of spectral evidence in proceedings. He concludes by saying "I am afraid that ages will not wear off that reproach and those stains which these things will leave behind them upon out land."